Chu Yiran stood in the entryway, staring at the piece of paper for a full minute.
Three notes, three different handwriting styles.
If these notes came from the same person, they were deliberately imitating different handwriting to hide their identity.
If they came from different people, then more than one person knew Sun Wanqing’s secrets.
In either case, the other party already knew where she lived.
Chu Yiran folded the paper and placed it with the previous two.
Then she walked to the window and drew the curtains.
On the fourteenth floor, there were no taller residential buildings opposite, so theoretically, there was no possibility of being watched.
But she still drew all the curtains tightly.
She sat down at her desk, opened her computer, and began sorting through the clues.
The first note appeared in her company drawer, with the message: The actual controller of Hengyuan Trading is Sun Wanqing’s ex-husband.
The second was also in the drawer, with the message: The external audit team will arrive next Tuesday. It is recommended to prepare.
The third appeared at her doorstep, with the message: The evaluation records Sun Wanqing submitted later are fake. Traces of the original data remain in the cloud backup.
The information in the three notes progressed layer by layer.
The first provided background relationships, the second gave a timeline, and the third directly pointed to the evidence.
This wasn’t casually leaking information; it was a planned, deliberate attempt to guide her.
Guide her to do what?
Chu Yiran’s fingers hovered over the keyboard for a few seconds.
To check the original data in the cloud backup.
If she actually did it and found evidence that Sun Wanqing had falsified the evaluation records, she would no longer be a passive observer but an active participant in exposing the truth.
The person leaving the notes needed someone to charge ahead for them.
And because she happened to be the audit liaison, happened to discover the first batch of abnormal data, and happened to have been called by Shen Yu to report, she became the most suitable candidate.
Chu Yiran closed her laptop.
She wouldn’t do it.
No matter who set this trap, she had no intention of falling into it.
She came to Shen Corporation to earn money and pay off her debts, not to be cannon fodder in someone else’s game.
After making this decision, she felt somewhat more at ease.
But another problem remained unsolved: The person leaving the notes already knew her home address.
Could this person pose other threats to her?
Chu Yiran thought for a moment, then got up to check the door lock.
An old-fashioned security door with a Grade B lock cylinder—not the best but not easily picked either.
If the other party only wanted to use her to investigate the case, they probably wouldn’t act against her for now.
But she still decided to do one thing.
At noon the next day, she took advantage of her lunch break to visit a hardware store and spent eighty yuan to replace the lock cylinder with a new one.
She also ordered a portable door and window alarm online, which would arrive the next day.
After completing these security measures, she refocused her attention on work.
The external audit team’s review had entered its third day.
Chen Zhi’s team was highly efficient, having gone through most of the administrative department’s procurement records from the past six months in just three days.
Chu Yiran’s daily task was to retrieve and deliver batches of documents according to their material requests.
The evaluation records for Hengyuan Trading that Sun Wanqing had submitted later were already in the files.
When Chu Yiran handled the archiving, she glanced at them. On the surface, they were well-prepared, complete with format, scores, signatures, and dates.
But the date filled in was from three months ago, while the printed paper was brand new, without even a crease.
Whether Chen Zhi would notice these details, Chu Yiran didn’t know.
But she didn’t proactively point them out.
Her principle remained unchanged: provide information truthfully, without embellishment or covering up.
The audit team had their own judgment; there was no need for her to overstep.
On Wednesday afternoon, when Chu Yiran delivered the final batch of supplementary materials to the meeting room, Chen Zhi called her over.
“Chu Yiran, have a seat.”
Chu Yiran sat down across from her.
Chen Zhi pushed a document to the center of the table.
“This is the supplier qualification review form you submitted earlier—the one for Hengyuan Trading.”
“Yes.”
“I have a question I’d like to confirm: is the approval signature on this form signed by you?”
Chu Yiran glanced down at the signature field in the lower right corner of the form.
The name signed was Zhou Ning, the former affairs specialist.
“It wasn’t signed by me. This form was already archived before I joined the company.”
“The signature belongs to the former affairs specialist.”
Chen Zhi nodded and jotted down a few words on a sticky note.
“One last question.”
She looked up. “After you joined the company, did you receive any instructions from anyone to modify or supplement already archived materials?”
Chu Yiran’s back stiffened slightly.
This question carried weight.
If she said yes, it would mean she was directly pointing to Sun Wanqing in front of the auditors.
If she said no, she would be lying.
But the truth was, Sun Wanqing had never asked her to modify any archived materials.
As for the supplementary evaluation record for Hengyuan Trading, Sun Wanqing had completed it herself and placed it directly into the filing cabinet, without involving Chu Yiran.
Procedurally, Chu Yiran could truthfully say no.
“No,” she replied.
Chen Zhi watched her expression for a few more seconds before nodding.
“Alright, thank you for your cooperation.”
When Chu Yiran left the meeting room, a thin layer of sweat had formed on her back.
Shortly after returning to her desk and sitting down, Lin Yuan leaned over from the side.
“What did the audit team ask you?”
“Routine confirmation, about the signatures on the documents.”
“They didn’t give you a hard time, did they?”
“No.”
Lin Yuan adjusted his glasses, as if hesitating to speak.
“Yiran, let me tell you something.”
His voice was lowered, almost whispering into Chu Yiran’s ear.
“Last night, I worked overtime until past nine. When I was leaving, I saw President Sun still in her office.”
“And then?”
“Then I saw her standing by the shredder for a long time, shredding quite a few things.”
Chu Yiran’s fingers paused on the keyboard.
“Did you see what she was shredding?”
“No, it was too far away.”
“But the shredder ran for at least five or six minutes.”
Five or six minutes of shredding wasn’t something a few sheets of paper could account for.
Chu Yiran fell silent for a moment.
“I see. Thank you for telling me.”
Lin Yuan nodded and turned back to his own workstation.
Chu Yiran sat there, her fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the desk.
Sun Wanqing was destroying documents.
And she was doing it after the audit had begun.
If Chen Zhi’s team discovered missing materials and questioned it, the timing of the disappearance would point to the audit period.
This was even more problematic than disposing of them before the audit.
Why didn’t Sun Wanqing handle it earlier?
Chu Yiran thought of one possibility.
The external audit team arrived early, catching everyone off guard. Sun Wanqing had no time to handle the aftermath before the audit began.
The order for the early external audit came from Shen Yu.
Did Shen Yu already know something?
Chu Yiran stood up and went to the pantry to pour herself a cup of water. She stood by the window and took a few sips.
Outside the window was the skyline of Hecheng’s CBD. In the distance, the sea shimmered with fragmented golden light under the afternoon sun.
When she returned to her desk with the paper cup, a new email notification popped up in the lower right corner of her computer screen.
The sender was Wang Yan.
“Ms. Chu Yiran, Mr. Shen has been informed that the external audit work is about to enter its summary phase.”
“Please submit a written summary of the audit coordination work to the executive office on the 62nd floor tomorrow at 3 p.m.”
Chu Yiran stared at the email for five seconds.
The 62nd floor again.
Another face-to-face meeting with Shen Yu.
She opened the document editor and began drafting the summary.
This time, she decided to submit only a written report, avoiding speaking unless absolutely necessary.
But she wasn’t sure whether Shen Yu would let her stay silent.